International

Persisting pain in children

The brochure Persisting pain in children for pharmacists offers concise information which is extracted from the WHO guidelines on the pharmacological treatment of persisting pain in children with medical illnesses (1) unless otherwise stated.

These new WHO guidelines outline basic principles, clinical recommendations and health system recommendations. This brochure highlights selected issues which are essential for pharmacists.

The WHO guidelines on the pharmacological treatment of persisting pain in children with medical illnesses address the pharmacological treatment of persisting pain, including cancer pain. As such, it replaces the previous guidelines Cancer pain and palliative care in children which exclusively covered cancer pain. The new guidelines on persisting pain in children are the first of a series of three guidelines documents on all types of pain in both adults and children. The topics of the other two guidelines will be ‚Äúpersisting pain in adults‚ÄĚ and ‚Äúacute pain‚ÄĚ. The basic principle of the guidelines is that all patients with pain, including children, should be treated with either pharmacological or non-pharmacological techniques, irrespective of whether the underlying cause can be identified.